The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-03-03
Oomanche, Texas.
For The CITIZEN.

Z VI lie NAlALhNa
The long looked for rain has
come at last and the farmers are
busy sowing oats. Some of them
are too poor to buy seed. The ap
preparation by congress of $4,000
will be most welcome to the drouth
sufferers. When man is poor
here there is no joke about it. He
is out at the heels and out at the
toes, out of victuals and out OF
clothes, out of friends and in debt.
The wealth of the country consists
almost exclusively of land and
stock; and a man may be rich IN
these and yet very poor so lar as
living is concerned. The wealthlest
man in the county owns len or ff-
teen thousand acres in this county
and a water privilege in New Mex,-
co and has five or six Thousand
head of cattle, and yet he lives as
poorly as many a mechanic in
Giles. 1 am told that his wife be-
gan to wear shoes every day only a
few years ago. If he is rich, it can
be imagined how the poor must
live. 1t is no doubt bad enough,
but 1 do not believe the reports
that there are so many in actual
want. / don't see it, and besides
there are enough jack rabbits to
keep people from starving.
/ met an old Texan to day who
has been here for thirty years. His
father was pioneer somewhere be-
fore him. He gave me a very in
teresting account of the country
when he and q few others settled
it. They plowed long furrow in
the prairie and planted corn in it
and then plowed two others to cover
the corn in the first. This was the
test of the agricultural possibilities.
The corn did not make anything SO
they concluded that there was NO
use to plant corn, and they all went
into the cattle business. They had
little to do but hunt and fish and
brand all the strays, or "Mavericks'
that came fooling around them
They hauled their supplies from a
hundred and fifty to two hundred
miles, generally starting with seven
or eight yokes of oxen to the wag-
on, and would trade off half of them
for the load of supplies and get
back with enough to last six months
or a year. He said that the rainfall
had been increasing each year uE
to the beginning Of the present
drouth. He attributes it to the
growth of timber and the increasing
cultivation of the land. / mention
ed in my last that the cattle were
living upon leaves. My old Texas
friend informed me that they were
doing better than ever at this time
He thought the leaves were sweetel
and more nutritious now than be-
fore. The leaves have been piled
in heaps by the wind in dumps o
bushes and they have turned The
rain and kept dry. He said tha
they were fattening more rapidly
than in Summer on the grass. L
this was always the case it would
be the stock mans paradise, bu
this is only the second year that i
has occurred ia the memory of thu
old settler. The frost generally
spoils the leaves before they cure
As general thing the carcases o
dead cattle are pretty thick in thu
spricg. Rents are cheap. You Cal
get as good house as your neigh
, Dor lives in for six dollars a month
Such a house has three or fou
rooms moderately comfortable. w
5 pay nine dollars for ours of abou
t the same kind. This was called
: cheap last September but they hav
J fallen since. M.